Boca de Tomatlán

It’s cool in the morning before the sun rises over the Río Horcones. The breeze from the east is fresh and the leaves of the palm trees wobble as it swirls. White-collared swifts gather and wheel in the sky above the village announcing their presence with loud chattering. Noisy blue-rumped parrotlets fly through the trees in small groups at high speed. Great-tailed grackles are whistling and social flycatchers call from the tops of snags. 

Pangas on the estuary

Noise is a fact of life in Boca de Tomatlán. During the night, a chorus of dogs begins in one area and spreads throughout the village. You can tell the size of the dogs by the pitch of their voices – big dogs, little dogs, they all get involved. Long before dawn the roosters began crowing. I heard the first one at 3 AM. Other roosters join out of necessity. It lasts for 20 minutes, then silence.

Entrance to Boca de Tomatlán

Large trucks pass through the village on Mexico 200 during the night. Boca is at a low point along the coast and the road into town from the north and south is downhill. Trucks use their Jake brake and the machine gun-like noise echoes off the hills. A sign on the highway says "prohibito frenar con motor" (no braking with the motor), but the truckers do it anyway.

Boca street

The village is awake before dawn. Boatmen are heading to work in their shorts and flip-flops carrying large plastic containers of gas. It’s high tide and most of the boats that were beached the night before are floating on the estuary. There must be 40 working pangas in Boca. Young men and old gather outside an open-air restaurant on the estuary; some are waiting for work, some are passing the time. A boatman yells to to an older man; there’s a conversation with a lot of hand signals. The guy gets a job for the day.

Pangas at high tide

Olivaceous cormorants, terns and Bonaparte’s gulls congregate on the few remaining sandbars bathing and sorting out their feathers. Magnificent frigatebirds rest on a wire rope stretched across the estuary. A green-backed heron "fishes" for minnows with a bougainvillea flower. The proximity of tropical deciduous forest, freshwater river, estuary and marine bay make Boca an excellent place for birdwatching.

Snowy egret following olivaceous cormorants hunting for small fish in the river. At times, 3-4 egrets would follow this trio of cormorants as they chased schools of small fish

This green-backed heron repeatedly picked up and dropped a pink bougainvillea petal to attract the small fish swimming around the rocks

Thirty magnificent frigatebirds resting on a wire rope across the estuary

Children are going to school in their uniforms – blue pants and skirts, white shirts and blouses – carrying backpacks almost as large as they are. Women walk into the village carrying purses, cardboard boxes and plastic bags followed by small dogs. Men carrying lumber on their shoulders and machetes and heavy sacks cross the river. 

Young man going to work

An old gringo barefoot in shorts and sweatshirt is walking two dogs on leashes (it’s rare to see a dog on a leash in rural Mexico). Trucks are making deliveries to the tiendas (shops) in the village. A truck carrying canisters of natural gas plays its "Global Gas" jingle through a loudspeaker as it fords the river to a small settlement upstream.

Boca street

As the air warms, the butterflies appear. Large and small sulfurs, whites and oranges are conspicuous fliers in the early morning sunshine. Black and yellow tigers and narrow-winged black butterflies with red spots fly closer to the vegetation. Dragon flies hunt small insects on the wing. Two west Mexican chachalacas the size of chickens are feeding in a guava tree behind the inn cackling their names.

West Mexican chachalaca feeding in a guava tree

A small group of gringos crosses the bridge below the inn with a guide. They're not watching the birds, so they probably came from Puerto Vallarta to hike the coast trail.

Gringos heading for the coast trail

We're staying at La Posada Pacifica (link), a small, comfortable inn, which is across the river and overlooks the upper part of the village. Sitting on the 3rd-floor porch is a bit like sitting at a tope (speed bump) along the road watching the world go by – a popular pastime in Central and South America.

La Posada Pacifica

View from La Posada

We are observers of the daily life of a small Mexican village. The comings and goings; the routines. Women hang laundry on the roofs of their houses. Men building a house mix concrete by hand. Two men are repairing the concrete foot bridge over the river below La Posada. A woman lights a fire in a pile of dried leaves that she raked yesterday. Mules are readied for a day of work. Another day begins in Mexico.

Mules ready for work

House entrance

Pangas are a significant enterprise in Boca. I saw a few rigged for commercial fishing (gillnets, lines and floats), sportfishing and snorkeling, but mostly pangas carry people and goods to and from villages on the coast as far south as Yelapa and Chimo. There’s a trail from Boca south along the coast to Los Animas and Quimixto that's suitable for foot traffic and mules, but the main access is by boat.

Water taxis loading passengers on the beach

Loading goods and passengers into a panga

Panga carrying freight leaving the bay

Pangas carry tourists and their luggage for day trips and overnights, boxes of alcohol and soda, boxes of fruits and dry goods and a commercial clothes dryer. Work boats carry cement blocks, bricks, bags of cement and laborers to construction sites on the coast. Boats carry workers in the tourist industry, like Vallarta Adventures (link), to the coastal villages and return them to Boca in evening.

Waterfront activity is focused around the pier

Boca pier

Loading concrete blocks into panagas for a house being built on the coast south of Boca

Boca is popular with tourists. It's a short bus ride from Puerto Vallarta for day trippers heading to the coastal villages or hanging out under the umbrellas on the beach. It's often described as a quaint or authentic Mexican fishing village, but I didn't see much evidence of commercial fishing. With its protected bay and estuary, it probably once was a thriving fishing village.

Waterfront restaurant

Boca has several hotels and B&Bs for overnight stays. And a number of gringos live there full or part time.

Se Vende (house on the estuary for sale)

The village is a good base for snorkeling and diving (link), kayaking, fishing, hiking, bird watching (link), trips into the mountains (link) and day trips by bus to old town Puerto Vallarta. I'll have more on the things we did in upcoming posts.

Río Horcones above Boca de Tomatlán